Gross miscarriage of justice

A few months back, the internet was in a twist over the so-called Affluenza Teen, whose Mommy took him out of the country to avoid prosecution…

The past week, the internet has had a collective melt-down as news of the Stanford rapist’s sentence went viral.

As well it should.

Arm-chair quarterbacking has always found its platform in social media. We debate the presidential wannabe’s faults and merits, we argue over which actors deserve awards, wring our hands over silly bathroom laws, have fits over gorillas, and now….we’re signing petitions to remove a judge from the bench.

As well we should.

Social justice can be a powerful thing.

In this case, social justice is all Brock Turner’s victim is likely to get.

Brock Turner, a nice white-bread kind of boy with a promising career and even Olympic aspirations ahead of him, was convicted on three counts of rape.

Convicted.

Let that sink in for a minute.

He was convicted. Witnesses saw what he did. A jury convicted him.

And despite this, he is sentenced to only six months in jail. With a shot at early release. And even extra protection from the ‘real criminals’.

Pardon me while I vomit.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough to deal with, Turner’s father has the gall to write a letter telling the judge what a wonderful kid he is and how his life has been so impacted by “20 minutes of action” that he can’t even enjoy a good steak anymore.

Still vomiting.

And then, Leslie Rassmussen, a friend of the rapist’s, made this public statement: “…sometimes, rape on campus isn’t always because people are rapists…”

Now, I’m crying.

I’m crying because that is precisely what rape is, Leslie. Rapists rape! That is the very definition of a rapist and Brock has been convicted of committing that crime. I’m crying because the reason Brockie grew up to be a rapist is because his sorry excuse for a father has never taught him what to do for an unconscious woman. A human being. Not a playground. Not a toy.

A human being.

As social media exploded with outrage, there were still those in my feed who rolled their eyes and called this miscarriage of justice just the latest Kool-aid everyone’s drinking, as if we look for reasons to get riled up because we have no lives and need those reasons to feel worthy.

People like this have no idea they’re part of the problem.

Look…I get it. I get that Brock was probably a nice boy and never in trouble, whatever. I get that he probably comes from a nice family *coughs, though his father’s letter casts quite a bit of doubt on that * — whatever. He did a horrible thing. He committed a crime. A crime that should have consequences.

A crime that DOES have consequences when other people commit it.

He needs to be held accountable for his actions, not coddled and excused.

I’m a parent of two sons and believe me, if either one of them committed this crime, I’d turn them in myself. I’d hate it. I’d hate every second of it. But never them. No matter what they do or could ever do, I wouldn’t hate them. And because I love my sons, because I want them to grow into fine, upstanding men, I wouldn’t shield them from the consequences of the actions they take — or the crimes they commit.

I completely understand how Mr. Turner wants the world to see the boy he thinks Brock still is. But Brock isn’t a kid anymore. He made a series of mistakes that led to the perpetration of a crime. It makes no difference to me that his victim doesn’t remember it. It still happened. And he was still convicted of it.

He must pay for that crime no matter who he is or used to be or how good a swimmer he is. Because what’s been done here is that open season was just declared on women. “Nice” guys all over the country are watching this and thinking, “Gee, I could really go for “20 minutes of action” right now.”